Airport construction



www?

April i8, i933.

J. W.`WOOD, JR

AIRPORT cQNsTRUTIoN Filed Aug. 50, 1930 INVENTOR JB/m W. WoodJ.

` ATTORNEY Pannisangen i933 Qumran .s'rATas I lfafrlezlafn :ont wanna woon, m., or nw Your, n, Y.

'amour oonsrauc'rron V Application med Laga-atv, A198i). Serial lo. 478,888.

This invention relates to airports, and more particularly to constructions for emitting airplanes to take-olf and land, to irculate to various points,'and to receive and discharge .`their cargoes, with maximum safety and minimumwaste motion, and without unduly large ground area.' y

f While risks in normal iiyingare constantl being reduced by rfection of 'aircra t 10 engines, structure of t e planes and improved instruments, the risks incidentl to operations about to Vcongestion due to increases in the number of planes.- As the available land in and near 15 the larger cities and towns is obviously limited, la serious problem confronting the industry is to provide improvedairports forefficiently and economically accommodating these increases 4in traiiic with, at the same 2' time, a reduction in risk.

I have devised an airport construction including'runwa s and the necessary-facilities for handling planes, passengers and cargoes, which provides for circulation of planes to other planes and for a loading station which isi not onlycentrally located with res ct to the runways but also 'accessible to ve icular traic. i l Other .objects and advantages of -airports .constructed in accordancewith the present invention will' be pointed out in connection with -a referred embodiment of the inven' tion, re erence bein had to the accompanying drawing wherein: The ligure lis a plan view of the airport construct-ion.'

In-building an airport it is, of course, necessary vfirst tos'ecure a plot of suicient area to permit. the construction of runways of three to four thousand feet in length. These figures', however, are merely illustrative and vary a great deal according to the type of plane operating from the airport and. the l surrounding terrain. Such a plot is shown 5 at 1 in the drawing as of generally rectangu-j lar shape but with one end inthe form of a semi-circle. This particular configuration'is naturally not essential, and the shape of the `field willvary in accordance with the land 50 available and other considerations'. The

airports are steadily increasing owing any desired point without interference withlength and breadth of the field should in g'en-l era suicient to rovide for landing and taking oif in at least our directions. One end of the airport will,'of course, be located ad- ]acentthe roadway .2, over which vehicles 5 may approach the airport. Preferably, the area` in which the anes operate is surrounded by a fence or edge 3, with the necessary opening therein' for vehicles to enter the. airport on road 4. V At some distancewithin the airport from its boundary adjacent the road 2, a passenger station 5 is built in such a way as to con-' veniently house passengers. From the station 5, into the airport a latform `6 which is en' closed for the com ort of passen ers. This platform should be a number o times the length of theordina'ry planes operating from the airport: Adjacent the passenger station 7 and between it andthe end of the airport is f a parking area 7 for the accommodation of vehiclescarryin passengers to and from the station. Aroun .thesides of this space may be located hangars 8 for the planes 9. Inas- 75 much be advisable to utilizeone side of the passenas under ordinary conditions, itwill ger platform `6 for planes receivin passengers and the other sidefor planes w OSe 118-.

' sengers are disembarkin I have provlded so means consisting of a roa Way 10 between the s ace for vehicles and the end ofthe iield at w ich the latter approach theairport, whereby it is' possible or planes. leaving one Side of the platform to circulate to a glven point :85 on the other side'of the platform, as when on their way to hangars,u without ,taxiing into the paths of planes whichare movin to and from points of landing and takingo The roadway 10 isintended to be a -one-way road '9 so' that planes passin y-along it all travel in the same direction, t is direction being reversed, according to which side of the plat-l l vform'is used for incoming and which for outarea 7, underneath the roadway 10. e tun- 10 there extendspreferably directly out 05 nel, however, is not regarded as essential, since most of the advantages of the roadway 10 landing gear of planes,. whereby the planes may be moved sideways to points adjacent the passenger loading platform. If the plane happens not to have a wheel on the tail skid, the tail may be placed on any suitable dolly. In this way all turning of planes near embarking and disembarking platforms is eliminated and their handling greatly speeded up and the engines of planes may be shut ofi' before the planes approach the passenger platform thus avoiding danger of injury by propellers, noise of engines, the necessity of the passengers passing through the slip stream in embarking and disembarking and the throwing of dirt on passengers and on other planes.

In making the airport, the first step is, of course, to grade the whole area by cutting and filling until the surface is substantially horizontal. Runways are then constructed of anysuitable material such as macadam, brick, concrete, etc., the balance of the area being preferably surfaced with turf, except for the portion immediately surrounding the hangars and the passenger station which may best be constructed of the sort of material i used in the runways. The materials used are,

however, just a matter of choice, based on c'osts and advantages.

In order to permit planes to land and takeoff, as well as to taxi to various points in the airport without interfering with one another, and without an excessive or ununsual amount of taxiing, I have provided a series of runways, A, B, C and D, constructed as pairs of intersecting parallel runways in four'directions with angles of about 45 between each successive pair. All the runways are of substantially the same length. Of course, the term pair is used in a very general sense, and it is not essential that the two runways in a pai?` be exact duplicates, but merely that the two together provide onerunway for taking off and ano-ther for landing when the wind is from such a direction that the particular pair of runways are in use. Nor is it essential that the runways of a pair be exactly parallel, although it will be generally advantageous to have them so.

. In the drawing, the runways A are shown as extending substantially the full length of the field at either side thereof while the diagonal runways C and D extend from one end of the field for distances substantially equal to the length of runways A and intersect the y trally located withrespect to the runways and yet they do not interfere with planes landing, taking off and taxiing. Moreover, the taxiing distance to and from. the ends of runways is reduced to a minimum. By the use of pairs of parallel runways, those in each pair being preferably spaced, one from the other, it will be appreciated that with a given wind direction, a plane may land on oneof the runways of a pair while another takes off from vthe other runway, using whichever runway is designated for each purpose. In general, it will be desirable to have a plane whichin landing uses the runway nearer the passenger platform while the planesl taking 0H should pass around the endof this runway and use the other one of the pair, so that planes taking off, with full 4load of gasoline and oil and at high speed,'

do not have to pass over planes taxiing to the terminal or to the hangar.

A short description of the operation of the port will aid in bringing out some of its advantages. For instance, suppose that the brunways A--A run north and south and the runways B-B east and west. Then, if

the wind is from the southeast, planes will land on the runway C which is the nearer one of its pair to the passenger station. The

vplane is then at liberty to taxi along the shortest possible route to the easterly side of the passenger loading platform in a direction facing toward the hangars and can los.

then discharge its passengers. It then proceeds in the same direction to the roadway l0 and thence to the other side of the passenger platform, stopping, if desired, at its hangar. Having received its load of passengers or express, the plane will then proceed to the northwesterly end of the runway C which in'this case is the landing runway, cross this runway and take off down the other runway C. In this way, not only does the plane not interfere with any other plane which is taking off, taxiing or landing, but it does not interferel with the loading of pas# sengers. I have found, by constructin the airport so that therunways are main yin one end or portion thereof and by concentrating the passenger station, loading platform, hangars and parking space centrally l'ao broken-up, unusable areas in the other portion. Moreover, on accounti of this centralization of the passenger loading platform and hangars, the taxiing distances 'to and from theends of the runways are reduced to a minimum, as well as the distances between hangars and the platform, while at the same time, the hankgars and stationare not only accessible to t e parking area, and the latter to the roadway by which vehicles approach the airport, butthe buildingsA do not interfere at all with planes operating 'on the runways.

Among theother advantages of my airport construction, the first is that no additional la'nd is necessary `over whatvis ordinarily employed in an airport having runways of the same length. Also, there is no4 lat, the platform at the same time and, of

course, whenever passengers are referred to herein, mail, express and freight are intended as alternatives; The size of planeaccolnmodated is practically unlimited. Moreover,

` hangars lare directly accessible to the central space for vehicles adjacent the passenger station .and it is unnecessary for pilots and mechanics to pass throu h the station.

While I have described 1n great detail one preferred embodiment of my invention, I do not wish to be limited to these specific details of the description or otherwise save b'y the scope of Vthe appended claims.

I claim L 1. An airport construction having one boundary adjacent an approach for vehicles and including a passenger station between said boundary and the center vof the field, and spaced from the latter, a roadway for planes extending generally parallel to said' boundary and between it and the station, and means to permit vehicles to pass under said roadway.

2. IAn airport construction having an approach for vehicles adjacent oneboundary thereof, a passenger Astation between said boundaryl and`the center of the field, and

spaced from. the latter, a parkingarea for .vehicles adjacent said station, hangars at the vsides of said area, a roadway for planes between said boundary and said area, and a tunnel under said roadway, whereby vehicles may enter said space withut crossing'said roadway. l

.3f-'An airport having one boundary adi jacent an 'approach for vehicles and including a passenger loading platform within sald boundary, a parking area between said platform and said approach, a roadway for taxiing planes between said area and said approach, and vrunways mainly in the other end ofthe airport.

4.'An airport having one boundary adjacent an 'approach' for vehicles and includin a passenger loading. platform within said boundary, a parking area between said platform and said approach, hangars adjacent said parking area,fa roadway for taxiing planes between said4 area and said approach and runways mainly inthe other end of the airport.

5. An airport construction having on boundary adjacent an approach for vehicles and including a passenger loading and unloading station within said boundary and theportion of the field there adjacent, and a roadway for planes .extending between said station and said boundary whereby the planes may taxi from one side of the station to the other. l

6. An airport construction having one I boundary adjacent an approach 'for vehicles, a passenger station spaced from said boundary but within the end of the airport adjacent thereto. a plurality of runways located and including a passenger station between said boundary and the approximate center` portion of the field, a loading platform adjacent said station and adapted to accommodate planes at either side. and a roadway forV planes between said station and boundary,.whereby planes may taxi from one side of said platform to the other.

loo i planes taxi- 8. An airport construction having 'one i boundary adjacent an approach for vehicles and including a passenger station between ysaidboundary and the approximate center portion of the field, a loading platform exthe' center of the .field and adapted to accomlnodate planes at either side, and a roadway for planes betweensaid station and boundary, whereby planesmay taxi from one side s of said platform to the other.

9. An airport construction having one boundary adjacent an approach for vehicles and including a passenger station between said boundary `and the approximate center of the airport a loadingplatform extending from said station generally. toward the centending from said station generally towardy ter of the field, a roadway for planes between said station and boundary, and hangars at the side of the station and between the roadway and center of the field, whereby planes may taxi from one side of said platform to the other and to the hangars.

JoHN WALTER Woon, JR. 

